Thursday, December 28, 2023

Pink purse cake



A lovely pink purse cake for Mom’s birthday on December 25, 2023. She loved bright colors and pink was quite her favorite. It is suggested that pink symbolizes love, nurture and compassion; perhaps this color made her feel comfort?.  This was a vanilla cake with whip cream filling. The design is made with pink whip cream- Yum!


 








Friday, November 24, 2023

Rocket Cake


A rocket cake for my lovely niece Hana. To achieve the height, I got a wooden dowel from Home Depot and screwed it to a strong base; then I built the cake around that. The tip of the rocket is all dowel and fondant. It was a vanilla cake with nuts and craisins. Yum!

Time has passed so quickly and is passing faster and faster every day with no possibility of slowing down.  Shall we stop thinking we can slow down time and accept that the progression of time is inevitable and what makes life interesting?  Shall we live in the moment; take advantage of time and own it?  Let’s use our time to strive for achieving our goals. Let’s make good memories, such as the day I constructed this cake. 






 

“Yesterday’s the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.” – Bill Keane

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Treasure chest cake

 



Pirates of the Caribbean

Treasure is hoarded wealth. It is also something of great worth or value or a person esteemed as rare or precious.  I believe treasure depicted in this cake is not what we strife for in this day and age.  The treasure of freedom and a life without fear and sorrow is something not everyone is blessed with. 

The biggest treasure of my life are my friends and family. List of our loved ones changes over the course of life as our priorities change, nevertheless friends bring special characteristics and qualities in life. We need our friends to be good listeners, defenders, confidants, encouragers, realists, motivators, counselors and cheerleaders. They are truly one of life’s treasures.





“Infinite riches are all around you if you will open your mental eyes and behold the treasure house of infinity within you. There is a gold mine within you from which you can extract everything you need to live life gloriously, joyously, and abundantly.”  Joseph Murphy


Saturday, May 6, 2023




This is "Alamgiri Gate" at the entrance of the Lahore Fort in Pakistan.  It was built by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1674 as a private entrance to the royal quarters. It was large enough to allow several elephants carrying members of the royal household to enter at one time.

Lahore Fort, is by far one of the grandest of all the Mughal citadels built in Pakistan. It is an incredibly opulent fortification, symbolizing the grandeur and wealth of the Mughal dynasty.  

This gate is one of Lahore’s most iconic monuments, and once featured on Pakistani currency.

The pillars were vanilla cake with cannoli filling and the square was a passion fruit cake with passion fruit cannolli icing. Yum!







 

Saturday, April 8, 2023

Road Runner Cake


Road Runner, the adorable cartoon character races along the highways of the American Southwest, his legs and feet moving so fast that they form a wheel-like blur. It speaks only with a signature "beep beep" along a background of gravity-defying rock formations. The cake was an ode to a friend who went on a long trip for business, driving for thousands of miles on the roads of the US. When she finally returned, we had a welcome back party with this cake.

I cannot fathom the stress of solitary driving miles and miles of asphault. The monotonous scenery, hours on end in the car and cramped spaces can make for an unpleasant trip.  But my brilliant friend listens to audio books all the way.  Awsome way of imbibing knowledge, as long as the audio book does not distract from safe driving.

The cake was her favorite almond cake with almond marzipan filling. 



 


Monday, March 6, 2023

Pocket Watch cake

 




A pocket watch cake for my brother’s birthday. He uses pocket watches like the 16th century tradition of stuffing the watch into the coat pocket and attaching the chain to a coat, lapel. Pocket watches have long been replaced by wrist watches; he wears a wrist watch too. And then there is a clock on mobile phones. He must be really punctual with three reminders of time….. he generally is!  Lets all be punctual. 

I think we all aim to use time to the maximum but "time burglars" foil the best of intensions. My time burglar are the incessant video clips of cooking, crafts, cats and babies and other topics that the computer knows are of my interest.  They are mesmerizing and before I know it- an hour has passed.  Time also flies when I am decorating a cake such as this one; but cake decoration is time well spent.




If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of. Bruce Lee

 


Monday, January 16, 2023

Embroidery hoop cake

 


Anyone likes to embroider? This cake looks like a fabric in an embroidery hoop with cross stitch embroidery. Many many moons ago I went to a convent school where needlework was mandatory and I remember learning all kinds of embroidery stitches such as this cross stitch.  This cake is an ode to Mom who used to be an avid knitter and embroiderer.  She managed huge projects such as bed spreads. Embellishing fabric with this painstaking art of hand embroidery adds grace, charm and style to the most mundane of everyday use articles.  She filled our house with beauty and celebration with this needlepoint artwork. Bless her!




A special salute to Sister Noelli, our needlework teacher in school. She taught us the most interesting stitches with very difficult French names.